I spent my remainder of the time discussing my role in that mission. "The Vampires do not know about you or your level of strength. Keep it that way because you are going to be our trump card. The plan is for you to lead a scouting party with the humans. Humans are always captured to act as a blood bank unlike the fae who are killed on sight. Your role will be to gather information inside enemy's camp and finally escape with all the captured soldiers." Zora said. "How many are there?" I asked. "Five were captured before and five of you will now be captured." Zora said. I am well aware of my strength. Protecting myself is easy but doing so to nine other people while utilizing a portion of my strength is going to be difficult. "However the primary goal is to retrieve information. The humans are likely to be held prisoners and not killed. We can always save them later." Zora added. Perhaps he saw the hesitation in my face and decided to lighten the burden of the mission. Further discussions between Zari, Zora and I continued until the eve of the mission. I had met with the scouting party beforehand and we were always going through our plans together. I received some dull and worn-out clothes that would help with the scouting activities. I looked the part except for my red flashy bracelet Jenga.
It did as instructed. I was no longer suspicious in my looks. Everything was now ready for tomorrow's mission. I slept soundly that night with no anxiety whatsoever. The next morning, we moved out before the sun had risen. Zora and Zari were present and they wished us success. We moved fast but quietly in a single file. This was meant to avoid tripping on the various traps laid out on our path. In thirty minutes, we were at the agreed upon location. It was a cliff side that oversaw the entire vampire domain. Our goal was to be captured by low level vampires before the sun rose. This would limit our interaction time with them considerably because their priority would be getting to safety with their detainees and not needless fighting and quarrels with us.
Zora's mind was good in tactics. A few minutes after arriving the cliff side, we were surrounded. We did as planned and tried to retreat. "Running away you maggots." "Don't make me laugh." "As if they could hope to match our speed." Voices from the vampires were heard all around us. We stuck to the routine and ran towards the fae village but we were all captured. We all received kicks and punches as we were running that led us to lie down in pain. For me, the pain was not as much as for my compatriots. Even without using a barrier or membrane, all I felt was a little pressure on my back. However, my acting was so convincing that one would say I was the most hurt in our group. I might have gone too far but who really knows. "Puny humans. You are now our tickets for promotion ha-ha." Said one of them. I counted seven of them all with mana reserves of between 70,000 and 125,000. I don't think the fae had a chance with this guys. Their speeds were also not that bad. The physical strength they exhibited was also impressive. In fact, the vampires bound as tightly with ropes and carried us on their shoulders back to base while running. It was a very uncomfortable journey.
"What are you doing with those?" a voice shouted inside the vampire base. It was an underground location that had very tight security. "We captured this spies. We brought them here for interrogation." One of our captors said. They were all kneeling not daring to look at the lady vampire. I was still on the shoulder of one of them hence could not see her strength. Taking a knee with full grown men on your shoulder. Talk about showing off. "Bring them to me at once." She said. We entered some office like room and were then dropped like bags of cement on the hard stone floor. "Aargh. You are dealing with people you morons." I shouted. I received a punch on my temple. "Do not talk in the presence of our commander." One of them declared. "You must feel really proud of yourself hitting somebody who is bound. Why don't you let me free and I will show you." I declared. I heard a chuckle from one of our captors who immediately prevented himself from laughing. "Enough. Silence." The commander declared. This was all a ploy to gauge their commander's reaction. Her face was stoic showing no emotions as she spoke. "Where did you find them?" The commander asked. "At the cliff side. They were spying on our location." One answered. "Why not spy during the day when there is less of us I wonder? Were they hidden when you caught them?" Commander inquired. "No we caught them off guard when they were standing around." Another answered. "Very interesting. Put this ones in the cell next to my office I will look after them personally." The commander declared. This commander is going to be trouble, she is too smart for my liking. I took a quick glance at her and saw a value of 850,000 for her mana reserves. She must be very old. Zora had explained to me that some vampires were over ten millennia in age and were very powerful. This must be one of those if you look at her strength and thinking capacity. We were carried out to a cell directly below the commander's office. Nobody else was here. Gathering information here will be next to impossible. We were untied and left there. "Best behave or I'll gut you." One of them said while running his thumb on his neck.They left the five of us and went on their way. "That commander is going to be trouble." I said. "Big trouble" "Certainly" "she seems very suspicious of us" "I agree." They all agreed with my assessment. A few hours later, one by one each of us were taken out of the cell. I was not sure where those before me went and was beginning to get anxious. I was the last one to be taken. "You on your feet. Come here." A voice said. My neck was held from behind and I was led to a room. The soldier promptly left after I was inside. "Sit." The commander said. I sat while smiling. This was my chance to try and mess with her. "How old are you?" I asked. "Pardon." She answered nonchalantly. "As you have guessed, we were sent here to rescue our comrades. You have a good brain on you. You must be more than 8 millennia in age." I answered. It was not going to be beneficial to lie here so I chose to divulge half-truths. "Since you have divulged part of your secret, I will tell you mine. Every time I am near a dangerous entity, my body gets anxious and notifies me of the danger. With you however, all I sense is my demise and an overwhelming pressure. So what are you?" The commander asked. Did the plan already backfire? What the hell is going on with this person? "I am afraid you did not answer my question. It is rude for you to expect me to answer yours is it not?" I said trying to buy time. I needed to come up with an excuse. "I am Eleven. The eleventh loyal servant of my lord the Blood Origin since fourteen millennia ago." She answered without delay. The speed she answered did not help me at all. "I am a dragon, a sibling to the great commander Zora. I am a thousand years old." I said while turning part of my arm to a dragon claw. "A sibling of Zora you said. That dangerous and cunning dragon. What was your mission here?" Commander asked. "To collect information in secret but as you can tell, that is no longer an option. I have a question for you as well. Why attack now? You have lived with your neighbors for a long time." I asked. This was something that I was deeply questioning. What motive would they have? There was silence for about a minute where we both stared at each other. "I propose an agreement. How about you take all your compatriots and leave? Taking care of you may pose a challenge but for the others it is as simple as snapping my fingers." The commander said. Is she avoiding answering my question? "Well my primary goal here is to gather information. Going back empty handed would be embarrassing." I answered. "When are you planning to attack and what numbers can be expected?" I asked. I was not really expecting an answer here.
"You are not related to Zora. You lack the family's red eyes." I heard a voice next to me. Was there a person standing here the whole time. No. I am sure it was only the two of us. Why is the commander kneeling? I must maintain my composure? "Well someone had an affair, you know how it goes. Who are you by the way?" I asked while smiling. "What a peculiar guy. Hahaha. You can call me Eight." He said while patting my back. He paid no attention to the commander. "Come with me. You seem interesting." He said. He lifted me from my seat with levitation and in an instant we were at another location. Was this teleportation? "Hey Seven, Nine, guys I found us someone new." Eight said. I was disoriented as I landed on the ground. This was a different location. What do they mean someone new? "Is he any good?" one of them asked. "The best. A dragon that is about 1000 years old." Eight answered. "Wonderful, this is perfect. Competition was getting boring lately." The other answered. Competition, what competition? "He has some guts on him let's try him immediately." Eight said.I was taken to a bloody arena where plenty of people gathered to watch what I assumed was fights. We stood at the center of the sunken pit.
"Listen you scoundrels. I have someone to help you train. A dragon that is a 1000 years old." Eight said. Cheers exploded all over the arena. Help them train? Are this people crazy? Although if I play my cards right I could collect information here. "He will now enter the competition to vie for the number 21. If a dragon gets the number it will be a huge embarrassment for you scoundrels hahaha." Eight declared. A laughter was heard from the crowd. "We shall begin immediately. If there is any of you who dare to challenge a dragon. Come up here and do so." Eight declared. An underground fighting club? This is nuts. A large line formed at the entrance to the sunken pit. Eight was going to referee the matches. I guess I should limit my strength and try to make this an entertaining match for the audience. Maybe this way I can stay here for a little longer and collect more information. The first challenger entered with 260,000 mana capacity. I tried to match his strength but he was too weak. My first punch, although I had limited my strength threw him hard against the concrete walls. He was done. Cheers and laughter was heard throughout the arena. Half of the challengers after seeing this left the line. I decided to be a good showmanship and began egging the rest of them. "I did not even use magic. I hope the rest of you are not as weak as him." I said while smiling. I could now see the determination in their eyes. I defeated the next five competitors with my first strike. The line that was a few meters at the beginning now had less than ten challengers. "You might as well start calling me Twenty One." I boasted. The crowd loved it. I had only used my bare knuckles up to this point. The next six competitors were all skilled and made me use two or three moves before I ultimately won. "This was the trial run. Now that you have witnessed his strength I hope that you will not embarrass me in future. Prepare yourselves because tomorrow he enters the competition officially." Eight declared. The crowd was ecstatic. I had a gauge of their strength. All of them were less than 300,000 in mana capacity. Eight had a mana capacity of 1.4 million which was really impressive. In fact I don't see anyone from the fae species besting him.